Thomas Lee's collection of random interesting items, views on things, mainly IT related, as well as
the occasional rant

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Build Conference Getting Closer

The build up (forgive the pun) to the Build conference is slow but relentless. For those not in the know, Build is Microsoft’s upcoming developers conference around Windows 8, the next version of Microsoft’s Desktop (and Server) operating system. Although due out till 2012, until recently details of what’s coming have been scarce.

As I’ve blogged previously, Microsoft is slowly releasing details of what will make it into Windows 8, albeit in a verbose and rather opaque fashion (not dissimilar to how they handled Windows 7). The Build conference is intended to be where Microsoft open the Kimono, but if the current agenda (http://www.buildwindows.com/Agenda) is anything to go by, details in Anaheim will be thin. We’ll have to see, although having taken millions in conference fees, it’s rather sad that Microsoft can’t be a little more open about who’s speaking, when, and about what.

Microsoft has also been blogging about the contents of Windows 8 at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/. There’s a very low signal to word ratio – lots of words, but not a lot of meat yet. The blog claims to be a dialogue, but so far, it’s been a monolog. Each blog post has generated a LOT of comments (the Improvements in Windows Explorer article, for example, has generated 1175 comments thus far!). But the number of responses is low – which I suppose is to be expected given all the comments. Also, given the blog engine being used, it’s really hard to see any thread/conversation. The comments are all sequential. I also note that some comments are being deleted – I’ve posted two comments that have somehow vanished.

Build should be a good event – for me at least it’ll be a chance to socialise with a bunch of friends. And given how cold and wet England is this year, a little south California sunshine is most welcome!